10 practical tools & tips for PM
We hear about new apps and tools that improve our life/work quality every day. Of course, this has its pros for us- project managers, since many of them make our lives smooth. However, is it worse to waste time researching and changing apps and tools over and over in the company? As we used to say in Armenia, “there is better than good.” The real question is, what kind of tools do you and your team need, and then decide which specific apps and tools to select. By defining the variety of tools, selection will be obvious.
This article highlights the types of tools used in practice, presenting the ones I use as a project manager at a full-service advertising company.
Let’s start with some basic ones:
Communication tool
Teamwork is essential, so communication is a part of our daily routine. Every decision can affect a project. That said, discussions are very important. That’s why being in touch with all team members is crucial.
- You can have stand-up meetings for 10–15 minutes, like on the Scrum framework or daily updates. The name is not necessary; the idea is that the team interacts with each other and knows who is doing what, what blockers they have.
- Besides, you probably know many introverted people avoid contact, which affects the team’s project and work. Constant communication partially solves the problem.
- The last one that I want to mention is that communication sets up the company’s culture.
Communication could be different:
- face to face meetings
- chats
- web conference
- online collaboration
- phone calls
- balcony meetings (about which I will mention later)
You need to select the more convenient apps for your team.
TIP: Try to find an individual approach to each team member from a communication point of view, then unite everyone around the project.
Listen and make notes
The Project Manager should always have the capability to listen carefully and understand the situation. This is more like a skill, but on the other hand, it is a tool for better management.
General advice: PMs are leaders who need to have the capability to
- listen instead of drawing conclusions
- understand by listening, even if you disagree
- listen to try to learn from everyone
It doesn’t matter how you will make a note. You can use any app/word document, or let me introduce you to my dearest friend, who is always helping me every step of my career and personal growth — pen and paper.
TIP: For all Project Managers in any sphere on any job: do not rely on your memory; you probably will forget something. Try to make some notes or reminders.
Methodologies and processes tools
Each project is a unique organism, and the attitude towards it should also be specific. At Zuck, we substantially use a few methodologies: Waterfall (Traditional) and Agile. However, we never put ourselves within the boundaries of the rules of that methodologies and mix and adapt them based on project needs. Nevertheless, this is a teaser for the next article.
To explain the needed tools, first of all, PM should:
- Have project research, define main goals, deliverables, as well as stakeholders’ interests
- Based on these, define project methodology and framework,
- Establish process based on the methodology․
In the world of continuous project changes, it is crucial not to lose the shining star (the main goal) during your project journey. To not lose it, I am using drawing tools to visualize and understand how to organize workflow, flowchart, or whatever I want to accomplish. Any drawing tool can help you with those mentioned above.
TIP: Use any drawing tool to design the project process from start to finish.
Setup files organization system
I believe in systematization at every step of our lives: during work and personal life. Organization systems are creating automation in the company. When cooking or selecting what to wear, you know where each item is located, so you don’t waste time finding it. The same is true with project files; if your team knows the system, they will quickly find them.
Let’s take a look at the Zuck project files organization system. Each project has its own space, which is divided into 4 main folders:
- Main files: all the necessary files received from partners and needed for project initiation and development.
- Documentation: all the documents connected with the project are collected here.
- Internal files: All the information and files that we upload and send each other during project development are stored here. So, team members have access from everywhere, even if they are working from home,
- External Files: The name is already telling you what is stored here. Every file that is coming out of the company is stored here.
For instance, the Oriflame integrated campaign was quite a big and complicated project, and organizing these files’ systems helped us during its preparation.
We developed this system based on our needs and experience. It could suit you or not depending on your company’s needs.
TIP: Categorize the types of files needed during the project in your company.
Setup Issue tracking
It is hard to find a convenient app for an advertising company since the best apps are adapted to the IT sphere.
So, we wrote down all the requirements for the issue tracking app that we need as project managers. You would say that we could use Jira, like every other company, or Trello. Unfortunately, these apps were not accomplishing our even essential requirements.
In selecting issue tracking applications, my advice for PM is to define what requirements you have now and a vision of needs in the future.
At Zuck, our requirements list:
- The user-friendly interface
- Integrations wide possibilities
- Gantt Chart
- Workload
- Flexibility in project setup
- Automation and configuration possibilities
- Reports, diagrams, charts
TIP: Make a requirements list and find a tool that suits your company.
Control the situation
If you are inflexible and can not react to the situation quickly, then advertising is quite a tense and changeable sphere. From a Project Management point of view, it causes many risks since we are drawing a timeline, evaluating resources and barriers, establishing deadlines, etc.
I will tell you about my favorite tool to manage and react to the situation. Issue tracking tools are essential, but they will not accomplish the issues if you don’t have the appropriate tools.
That said, it is time to introduce PMs’ good friend — Gantt Chart (Visual Representation of every aspect of the project).
Let me explain how I use it:
- Deliverables are our issues and subtasks,
- Time is shown on the horizontal axis,
- Resources are attached to the deliverables
- And the most important one is Dependencies, which tells me which issue is blocking the other one so that I can put priority on it.
For example, Beeline Shake Launch is implemented and tracked using Gantt Chart, which helps to deliver a quality triangle (time, cost, quality).
TIP: You can use it separately from your Issue Tracking application, but it is better to integrate it with the Issue Tracking app.
Make your daily life easier
There are many different apps to make your daily work routine comfortable, like apps that convert emails to chat conversations. Those tools are helpful if you want to understand a topic instead of repeatedly scrolling to find the necessary information in the mailing. In my case, the most used ones are reminders for a call or research apps.
TIP: Setup automation tools:
Identify which daily process is the most time-consuming
Analyze why it is consuming so much time
Find the app or tool that will transform it from time-consuming to time-saving.
Appreciate each other
At Zuck, we appreciate every team member’s work by giving positive feedback to each other. This is a small but exciting thing when team members share and specify why positive feedback is given. From a PM’s point of view, continuous feedback brings trust and mutual understanding to the team. Every feedback is a joy.
For example, during Inecobank’s Apple Pay Launch project, all team members appreciated each other’s work at every phase of the process, which became the core of the project.
TIP: Try to mention each team member’s achievement.
Time to stand
I spend a lot of time in front of my laptop, which causes many health problems. That’s why I decided to stand and walk every hour, but you know,
easy to say, hard to do.
I decided to look at this as a gadget lover. My next tool: Apple watch tells me when to stand, walk, and tracks all the activities, which in my case, has a positive impact on my health.
Balcony Meetings
Every Project Manager knows that meetings are very time-consuming and, as a result, expensive. So if I can reduce the number of meetings and the number of members involved, the company will benefit. On the other hand, meetings are trackable and always have precise results compared to “balcony meetings.” At Zuck, we have so-called “balcony meetings” where we gather together on the balcony and discuss projects, news (both from the industry and global), or sing. Trying to reduce meeting quantity increases the “balcony meetings,” which are uncontrollable but always full of great ideas.
This uniqueness takes us to numerous great ideas. However, most of these ideas remain on the balcony as they do not enter the implementation process. That’s why I am taking notes for each improvement or idea during balcony meetings. It is not always possible, but I believe during such balcony meetings, everyone should make notes.
Where does your team meet to generate crazy ideas?
About this author:
Nina Nersesyan is a Project manager at Zuck Independent Agency, who is passionate about automatization tools, process improvement and innovations.
